2. Tie in a wooden match thickness of marabou for the tail on the top of the shank at the bend of the hook. Use a dab of water to straighten and help manage the marabou. Tie in securely.
3. Measure the length of the shank of the hook (bend to eye) with a bodkin and trim the marabou tail (using the nails of your thumb and index finger).
4. Facing you, take a strand of tinsel and tie it in with a length half way from the hook bend to the end of tail. Take the remainder and tie it in on the opposite side of the tail and snip off excess tinsel. Repeat for the top and bottom of the tail. Now you have tinsel on top, bottom, front and back.
5. Take a pinch of marabou about 1/3 amount of the thickness of the tail and tie in the tips where the shank of the hook meets the bend. This will be the shell back.
6. Tie in the butt of a hackle feather, cup facing back (at the same place as the tail and shell back).
7. Place a tiny amount of Loon high tack Swax on about 6” of thread. Create a dubbing loop and place pre-separated dubbing along the inside of the loop. Use a small amount of dubbing 3-4” closest to the hook and a more modest portion toward the dubbing tool.
8. Using a Cal-Bird Dubbing Tool, spin the dubbing loop into a noodle and wrap the noodle forward to approximately one hook eye distance behind the hook eye. Tie in securely and trim off the excess noodle.
9. Take the hackle and wrap it forward toward the eye 4 to 5 wraps and secure where the noodle is tied off. Trim off excess.
10. Pull the hackle barbules back toward the bend of the hook and place the shell back marabou over the top. Secure the shell back, trim off excess marabou and wrap thread to create a small head.
11. Whip finish and cement with crazy glue. Insure the hook’s eye is free of cement.
